Like a delicious, exquisitely presented gourmet banquet that may or may not contain human flesh, Hannibal's second season was rich, varied and utterly satisfying while still leaving us hungry for more.

Following our enlightening chat midway through the second season's run in the US, Digital Spy caught up with Fuller again last week to post-mortem season two, and get a taste of what's to come next year.

Advertisement - Continue Reading Below

Fuller discussed what was going through Will and Hannibal's minds in the emotionally gruelling finale, his plans for season three's structure, and the ongoing rights issues surrounding Clarice Starling and Silence of the Lambs.

WARNING: The following interview contains spoilers for the entire second season of Hannibal, and the finale in particular.

How is the structure of season three shaping up?
"We're going to do something similar to what we did last season, where we break it into two chapters – one seven-episode chapter and one six-episode chapter. We've broken out that first chapter in broad strokes, and now we're going through and doing the outlines, and we're right in the middle of episode four."

The moment in the finale where Hannibal stabs Will is so loaded – how did you approach that scene?
"The culmination of their relationship, or this chapter of their relationship, felt like we needed it to be as emotionally honest and genuinely moving as possible, given the circumstances! And we really wanted to play that breakup. It should be sad, and it should be traumatic, as any loss of friendship is, so we wanted to be as emotionally visceral as we were physically visceral."

I assume that bringing Abigail Hobbs back in the finale was always your long-term plan?
"Yes, we knew Abigail was going to be coming back around into the season, at the end, because we very intentionally crafted that story so that there was no body. Even when Will and Hannibal spoke openly about it, Hannibal never said 'I killed her because…', he said: 'What happened to Abigail had to happen'.

"So we had a lot of fun knowing that's where we were heading, and that she was going to be cropping up. It was satisfying to leave those little breadcrumbs, or Reese's Pieces."

How is season three going to work, with Hannibal and Will thousands of miles apart?
"It's a little bit like Empire Strikes Back, which had C-3PO and R2-D2 separated for the bulk of it – that has kind of been our approach. You surround both of the droids with storylines and scene partners that are as intriguing as it is to see them together. So I feel like that's been one of the fun challenges of this season, not having scenes with Will and Hannibal together but also getting a greater sense of what they mean to each other, in those absences."

What state of mind is Will in going into season three?
"So much of the second chapter of this past season was Will rocketing toward his own doom, and willingly approaching that target, which has a sadness and a dread to it, at the same time as an inevitability. So much of what we're doing in the third season, in the first three or four episodes certainly, is really exploring: what is Will Graham's state?

"Every season has various horror homages to it, in terms of production and also thematically, and season three has a Universal Monster sort of flair, because Will Graham is essentially Frankenstein's monster. He died, for all intents and purposes, in the finale. He was gutted, and stitched back together as a new man. And who that man is will be a great part of the first part of season three."

So if Will is Frankenstein's monster, where is Hannibal at mentally?
"I think he is going to be as traumatised as the other characters, but with a stranger set of coping mechanisms! Part of the fun for us with Hannibal this season is how he stays the same, and how dramatically he changes, and the fact that he misses Will."

Is it safe to assume Gillian Anderson's Bedelia will have an expanded presence this season? Do you have her contracted yet?
"We are in the process of figuring that all out. I would like to have a greedily selfish amount of her for the season – I think she's such an asset to the show, and brings such an intrigue with her performance, and her chemistry with Mads Mikkelsen, that more of her is definitely a good thing.

"I think what's interesting is that even when Will and Hannibal aren't in scenes together, they are very much in each other's lives, where you feel their presence in those scenes."

The scene in which Hannibal makes Mason Verger feed his own face to Will's dogs is extraordinarily grisly, but also incredibly funny. Did you have any issues with the network around that scene?
"Well, we knew what was coming, and we were very proactive with Standards and Practices. We reached out to them and said, 'This is a big pivotal moment in one of the novels, we'd really like to represent it faithfully, how do we do that?' And they gave us some parameters, they were like, 'The more you keep in shadow, the more you can do, the less vibrant the reds are in the blood, the more you can do'.

"So a lot of what we were seeing on screen in that scene almost read as black, so it's less likely to set off that trigger. If you'll note, in certain trailers – like Kill Bill, in the regular trailer Uma Thurman's got tar on her. In the movie it's blood, but they had to make that blood black for the trailer in order to show it in front of a PG-13 movie.

"That was an interesting education for us, in terms of the triggers, the buttons for them, and how to avoid pushing them."

It was nice that you had [Will's dog] Winston as the moral compass in that scene, refusing to participate!
"[Laughs] He's like, 'There is some f**ked up shit going on in that house right now. You might wanna have a drink before you go in there'."

Is there still any prospect of David Bowie guest starring as Hannibal's uncle?
"We're going to keep trying, every season! Fortunately for us as great appreciators of his music, he is so active in that realm right now that that's really taking up a lot of his schedule. Once we have all of our dates set up, we're going to re-approach and see if there's any opportunity with Mr Bowie, but I just know that he has got a very full plate with his music.

"We will be trying to work out a way for him to be on the show, for as long as the show is being produced."

And ditto David Tennant?
"Yes, we had talked about David being a guest star in season two, and once again it's a schedule issue. He was filming the American Broadchurch for our dates in season two, and he's also a very busy man, so it's about finding that window.

"I love David Tennant, I think he's a wonderful talent and I've been dying to work with him for many years now, so one way or another it's going to happen."

Was there a particular role he was up for in season two?
"No, with him it's basically, 'Do you want to do the show? Okay, in that case let's write something fantastic for you specifically'."

There are famously certain characters from Thomas Harris's books that you don't have the rights to – how exactly does that aspect work?
"We don't have the rights to any character that originated in Silence of the Lambs. It's interesting how this breaks down: DeLaurentis and Gaumont [the studio behind Fuller's Hannibal] owns any character that originated in the book Red Dragon, MGM owns any character that originated in the book Silence of the Lambs, and I believe that Thomas Harris has the rights for all the other characters that originated in the other books.

"So for instance, we paid a character fee per episode when we had Margot and Mason Verger, and we'll be doing something very similar next season with Lady Murasaki, and some other characters that are going to be very exciting to play with."

And there's no prospect of paying a similar character fee for Clarice Starling, because MGM aren't willing to rent that character out?
"Well, we tried to get Benjamin Raspail and Jame Gumb in the first season, so that we could tell that story and set up Silence of the Lambs. We tried to work out all manner of deals with MGM, like, 'We'll give you access to use the Hannibal Lecter character in your Silence of the Lambs spinoff show that you're developing, if you give us, or let us rent, Gumb and Raspail.

"And their response was, 'Under no circumstances, what's ours is ours and what's yours is yours.' So we can only hope that they either change their mind, or there's a new deal to be had that is mutually beneficial for both studios – something that would make it possible. So I'm going to keep trying on that, at every opportunity. They've already said no to me so many times that I'm not afraid of asking again!

"Clarice is such a special character and a very iconic one, both from the literature and especially, in terms of pop culture, from Jodie Foster's fantastic performance. So it would be great to fold her into the Hannibal omelette, but time will tell."